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| Congen Romulo Israel congratulates Dory Octavio for her outstanding achievement |
Consul General to Hong Kong Romulo M. Israel met and congratulated Filipino domestic worker Maria Adoracion R. Octavio earlier today, Sunday, for her remarkable feat of placing second in the special licensure examination (SLE) for secondary school teachers in the Philippines held last June.
Congen Israel’s first question to Adoracion or “Dory”
to friends was, “Would you like to go home?”. Noticing her hesitation, he added
that he fully understood if Dory did not want to, especially if she has better job
options in Hong Kong.
However, as the country’s top representative in Hong
Kong, he said he would like to see Dory go home and use her exemplary knowledge
of teaching to help Filipino students, especially those in public schools.
Congen Israel was even more impressed on learning
that Dory obtained her education degree while doing full-time domestic work in
Hong Kong. Initially, she took a two-year course with AMA Computer Learning
Center in Hong Kong, and then followed this up with two more years of online
lessons with AMA University in Quezon City.
Dory, who is 38, single and a native of Pasacao,
Camarines Sur, first went abroad to work as a domestic helper in Singapore in
2009, then moved to Hong Kong in 2014. She had just finished high school then.
“Wala na po
sana talaga akong balak mag-aral, (I no longer had plans of studying), I
just wanted to save then go back to the Philippines and start a business,” she
said.
“But my friend Nikki encouraged me to enroll in a
two-year programming course so that we could earn 72 units to apply for Canada.”
However, when AMA announced that it was opening a
diploma in teaching course, she decided to go for it instead, thinking it would serve her in better stead, whether in the Philippines or Canada.
It helped that there were people around her who made
her aspire for more, including AMA HK’s school director, Helen Marcos, whom she
credits for pushing her to do two more years of online lessons to complete her
degree.
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| CG Israel and teacher Dory are joined by Labor OIC Tony Villafuerte and AMA HK's Helen Marcos |
After graduating last year, Dory thought she should
take the board exams immediately while everything that she learned was still
fresh in her mind. When she learned that the SLE would be held in Taiwan and the Middle East last June, she tearfully begged her elderly employer to allow her to
go to the island state, even just for two days, so she could take the test.
To her surprise and delight, she not only passed the
test, she even got a remarkable grade of 89.20, enabling her to tie with three other
examinees, all OFWs, in second place.
But true to her self-effacing nature, Dory said her grade would probably not be enough to land her in the top 10, if she were to compete with everybody who is taking the test, including those in the Philippines and abroad.
What she didn't seem to realize was that she was a standout even among those who placed in the top 10, as she was an all-around domestic worker, while the others were either teachers or skilled
workers in places such as China and Uzbektistan, which meant that they had more time, energy and resources to focus on
their studies.
Acting Labor Attache Tony Villafuerte who joined Congen Israel in congratulating Dory said that under the SPIMS (Sa Pinas. Ikaw ang Ma’am, Sir) program of the Department of Migrant Workers, Dory could be given a permanent teaching position in her hometown in the Philippines should she decide to go home for good.
But since she’s a new teacher, she will hired at entry-level,
which pays just over Php30,000 each month. That would mean Dory taking a salary
cut should she decide to go home, as she is already receiving more than the
minimum wage for FDHs which is HK$4,990 (about Php35,700).
Then, there is also the possibility that she could
be hired for a teaching job in Hong Kong, which is now no longer as far-fetched,
given her outstanding performance in the qualifying examination, and the current
dearth of qualified teachers in the city.
Even Helen, who was among the first to publicly
share Dory’s remarkable feat, said she’d be happy to take in her mentee as an
employee, if Immigration would allow it.
But if there are better offers out there for Dory, Helen
said she would be happy enough to ask her to come by on Sundays, just so she
could inspire other OFWs to dream as she did, and achieve.
